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Home owners made more of a profit from selling in 2017 than the previous year

27th December 2017

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The average seller in England and Wales sold for an average of £92,466 than they paid for it in 2017, an increase of £2,239 from 2016, new research shows.

Overall 92% of people selling made a profit, up from 90% in 2016 with those in London seeing the highest gains as one three sellers doubled their money in 2017, according to the study from Hamptons International.

The average seller sold their home after living in it for nine years and the average profit was up from £90,227 in 2016. With the exception of London, sellers in every region saw bigger gains than in 2016.

In London sellers gained an average of £252,196, over three times more than the average seller outside London and one in three Londoners who sold their home did so for at least twice what they paid for it an average of 8.8 years ago.

With the highest house prices, sellers in London and the South East make the most. Nine of the 10 places where this year’s sellers made the largest gains were in the capital, with Elmbridge the only local authority outside London.

The top gain was in Kensington and Chelsea with sellers making an average profit of £940,494, but this was down from £1,060,875 in 2016.

Outside of London and the South East the top gains included £110,000 in Trafford, £107,265 in Warwick and £96,764 in Harrogate. The lowest profit was £19,639 in Burnley, followed by £21,508 in Hartlepool.

‘House prices have grown considerably over the nine years the average seller has owned their home. Many sellers will have added value by renovating, extending or developing but the bulk of their gains come from price growth,’ said Johnny Morris, head of research at Hamptons International.

‘The London housing market has been cooler than the rest of the country in 2017, but London sellers still make the largest gains, by a long way. This year the average London seller bought their home nearly nine years ago and has seen its value rise by more than quarter of a million pounds. Even with slowing price growth most owners are still sitting on plenty of growth from previous years,’ he added.